Everyday LifeGreek → English
Center
/ˈsɛntər/noun
The middle point of a circle, area or activity.
The Greek roots
κέντρον
kéntron
sharp point, goad
Literally: “the point that pricks”
Follow a root:κέντρον9 words
The story of the word
A κέντρον was a cattle goad, a spike for driving oxen, and also the sting of a bee. Geometry gave it the other job: the fixed leg of a pair of compasses, the spike that pins the paper while the other leg swings. Euclid built the circle around that pinned point, Latin took the word as centrum, and English inherited a metaphor about being stabbed in one spot.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
concentrateeccentricepicenterconcentric
In a sentence
Draw a circle with its center on the fold.
The whole argument turns on one paragraph in the center of the report.